Vatican 'defrocked 848 priests for abuse'

Geneva: The Vatican says it has defrocked 848 priests and punished 2572 others out of the 3420 cases of child sex abuse brought to its attention in the past decade, telling a United Nations hearing that it was determined to stamp out the scourge.

"Any serious look at the reality around the world on what the Holy See and the local churches are doing shows clearly and without ambiguity that certainly there is no climate of impunity," said the Holy See's UN envoy, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.

Hundreds of abusers have been driven out of church ranks over the past decade, he said.

"There is a total commitment to clean the house, to change, and above all to work and effect measures that prevent the repetition of abuse. We have crossed a threshold in the evolution of the approach to this problem," he insisted.

Unimpressed: Barbara Blaine, founder of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), dismissed the archbishop's testimony as "more of the same". Photo: AP

The two-day hearing which began on Monday marked the first scrutiny of the Vatican since it signed up in 2002 to a global convention banning torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment.

The panel of independent rights and legal experts that oversees the convention lauded the church's global work with victims of war and violence, but demanded to know how the Holy See was righting the wrongs of abuse.

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Its vice-chairwoman, American Felice Gaer, said international law was clear that rape and sexual violence constituted torture.

The Catholic Church has been shaken by a decade-long cascade of scandals over abuse by priests and lay officials, from Ireland to the United States and Australia.

New cases continue to emerge, notably in Poland, Portugal and Latin America.

Benedict XVI, pontiff from 2005 to 2013, was the first pope to apologise to victims and call for zero tolerance.

His successor Pope Francis has stepped up efforts, revising church laws and creating a commission involving victims to develop tougher ways to protect minors and increase accountability.

Archbishop Tomasi said that the world could learn lessons from that.

"It is clear that the issue of sexual abuse of children, which is a worldwide plague and scourge, has been addressed in the last 10 years by the church in a systematic, constructive, effective way," he said.

The Church counted 414,313 priests globally in 2012.

Archbishop Tomasi said 3420 cases based on "credible accusations" of abuse have been handled over the past decade by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church's prosecuting arm, mostly over offences from the 1950s to 1980s.

Of those, 848 priests were expelled from the priesthood. A further 2572 were ordered to "live a life of prayer or penance", for example in a monastery.

"This does not mean the person gets away with the crime they have committed. They are all taken out of the context where they can reach children," Archbishop Tomasi said.

He said he was unable immediately to provide data on numbers turned over to justice authorities in countries where crimes occurred, but that he thought most cases were reported and not just handled in-house.

"When there is a credible accusation, it should be reported to civil authorities as well," he underlined.

However, Barbara Blaine, president of the 18,000-strong international Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the Vatican's defence was "more of the same".

"Tomasi describes what should happen in clergy sex cases, according to church policy, but what actually happens is very, very different," she said.

Critics say the Vatican and individual dioceses have helped abusers escape justice by covering up crimes and transferring them to new parishes, sometimes abroad.

"That has been a policy that was practised decades ago, mostly," Archbishop Tomasi said, insisting that national justice systems had also been less ardent about pursuing paedophiles at the time.

He locked horns with panel members who questioned the church's stance on abortion over risks to a mother's health and psychology, notably in rape cases.

"We consider the right to life as a non-negotiable," said Archbishop Tomasi. "We condemn torture, including for those tortured and killed before they are born."